Feeling The Heat

It's a week characterized by opressive heat (at least here in the northeast United States) and torpid economic news (pretty much everywhere). But it didn't kept us from chasing down the big stories.

In the week's top deal, IBM announced it was buying PwC Consulting for three-and-one-half billion dollars. First order of business: reversing the former Price-Waterhouse consulting business's plan to rename itself 'Monday'.

Former Microsoft executive Rick Belluzzo has resurfaced, taking over as CEO of storage vendor Quantum next month. VARBusiness' Sonia Lelii talked with Belluzzo about his plans.

Ingram Micro reported a profit for the second quarter, thanks in large part to cost-cutting, but sees little growth in the coming months.

On August 1, Microsoft's new licensing rules, Licensing 6.0, went into affect, providing volume discounts to companies willing to sign up for annualized payments to Redmond. Many organizations rushed to get contracts in before the deadline to lock in discounted rates.

Partnerware, pioneer in the Partner Relations Management software space, has shut its doors, as has Java software vendor WebGain. ASP pioneer Corio, on the other hand, is buying ASP assets from troubled Qwest.

Top Talkbacks

Last week, Microsoft vs. Linux lit up the talkback boards. This week, it's Linux vs. other-kinds-of-Linux, as readers respond to VARBusiness review of five Linux distributions. But Microsoft wasn't completely off the hook. On a second board, readers ran down the pluses and minuses of Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes.

On The Run

Speaking of running, a bunch of us from the ChannelWeb family did just that this week, participating in the Jones Beach leg of the J.P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. VARBusiness' Bob DeMarzo, Christina Gambuzza, and Marilyn O'Hara, CRN's Vincent Randazzese, our group circulation manager Shannon Aronson, and myself, faced down a sweltering 3.5 mile course with about 40 of our CMP Media counterparts and 9,000 other participants. Bragging rights went to Shannon, who took first place among CMP's women, and Bob, who proved there's still some spark left in those legs.